1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an apparatus and a method for automatically performing channel change of a television receiver (referred to hereinafter as a TV) using a video cassette recorder (referred to hereinafter as a VCR), and more particularly to an apparatus and a method for automatically changing a current channel of the TV to a video viewable channel in a playback mode of the VCR.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a view illustrating a general connection of the TV and the VCR, which are designated by the reference numerals 2' and 1', respectively. As shown in this drawing, the VCR 1' has a radio frequency (RF) output terminal 1a' as a video output terminal and the TV 2' has an RF input terminal 2a', which is connected to the RF output terminal 1a' of the VCR 1' through an RF cable 3'.
In order to watch a playback video from the VCR 1' through the TV 2' under the condition that the VCR 1' and the TV 2' are connected to each other via the RF cable 3', the user must manually set the current channel of the TV 2' to the video viewable channel (for example, channel 3 or 4 in Korea). Namely, whenever the user intends to watch the playback video from the VCR 1' through the TV 2', he must apply a playback command to the VCR 1' using a VCR remote controller and change the current channel of the TV 2' to the video viewable channel using a TV remote controller.
In this connection, whenever intending to watch the playback video from the VCR through the TV, the user must go to the trouble of changing the current channel of the TV to the video viewable channel. Also, the use of two or more remote controllers results in further inconvenience. Further, even an integral TV/VCR remote controller cannot avoid all inconvenience because it must apply the channel change and playback commands to the TV and the VCR, respectively. Moreover, in the case where the video viewable channel number is changed from one known number to a different number, the user may misinterpret a normal state of the VCR or the TV as a faulty state incapable of playback video reception since he is liable to manually set the current channel of the TV to the prior video viewable channel without recognizing the channel number change.
On the other hand, a cable broadcasting signal reservation-recording technique is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,046. In this technique, reservation-recording data are stored in a memory of the VCR by the VCR remote controller, and a remote control signal is outputted from the VCR when the current time reaches a reservation-recording time of the reservation-recording data stored in the memory of the VCR. In response to the remote control signal from the VCR, a reservation-recording operation is automatically performed with respect to a cable broadcasting signal through a cable box. However, this technique does not relate to the control of the TV, but rather to the control of the cable box by means of the VCR.
A system for automatic recording cable television programs is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,789. In this system, a video recorder is remote controlled to record slected programs at their broadcast times. However, this system does not relate to the control of the TV.